WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for The Madness.
Rodney Kraintz is one of the key antagonists and investors in the biotech company Revitalize in Colman Domingo’s Netflix conspiracy thriller seriesThe Madness. Created by playwright Stephen Belber ofThe Laramie ProjectandTapeacclaim,The Madnessfollows Muncie Daniels' rapidly unraveling life after discovering a dead bodyin a remote cabin neighboring his wooded rental home. AlthoughThe Madnesspulls a lot of inspiration from reality, or at least reality-based people and ideologies found in the modern American social and political climates, theNetflix limited series is not based on a true story.
Colman Domingo leads thecast ofThe Madnessalongside John Ortiz, Deon Cole, Marsha Stephanie Blake, and Tamsin Topolski. ThroughoutThe Madness,Muncie is a CNN contributor who believes he’s being set up for murder. He must rely on support from his family and a few helpful sources to clear his name. By theend ofThe Madness, Muncie tries to enact revenge on a mysteriousshadowy figure named Rodney Kraintz. He connects a dark web between Kraintz, Revitalize, andThe Forge, which is an armed extremist groupled by the online thought leader known asBrother 14, aka Mark Simon.
All 8 episodes ofThe Madnessare now streaming exclusively on Netflix.
Rodney Kraintz Is A Majority Investor In The Big-Tech Company Revitalize
By the end ofThe Madness, Muncie discovers that Rodney Kraintz is a majority investor in the biotech company Revitalize who ordered the hit on Mark Simon, or Brother 14. Rodney Kraintz became concerned about Mark Simon’s growing online influence, which amassed more than 5 million online followers, and budding interest in politics. Once Simon starts to go rogue and becomes less cooperative with Revitalize’s agenda,Kraintz starts to see him as a threat and a liability, which is why he has him killed. Simon was the leader of an armed militant white supremacist group known as The Forge, which represented Brother 14’s target demographic.
The Forge doesn’t do much in the series until the finale, in which a rogue member murders Rodney Kraintz after Muncie forfeits his opportunity for revenge. Kraintz operates from the vantage point of mass influence, meaning that he likely has several other “Mark Simon’s” all around the world who he and Revitalzie pay to influence public opinion. In Kraintz’s view, there will always be another internet puppet to mask purchasable and propaganda-fueled information to satisfy a wealthy party’s financial or political interests.Revitalize clearly profited or benefited from Brother 14’s following and far-right influence, until Simon went from being a tool to a weapon.
Revitalize Is A Corrupt Environmental Biotech Company Who Buys Political Influence
Revitalize appears to be much bigger than any one person
Revitalize is an environmental biotech company that bought political influence and paid online influences like Brother 14 to spread misinformation and propaganda that would ultimately benefit them.Revitalize’s main objective is to gain full control of environmental deregulation in the United States, which is how people like Mark Simon and other online influencers and thought leaders can help sway political and social opinions for their gain. Mark Simon was never identified on the internet and instead wrote a popular forum behind the anonymous username Brother 14. He was not like common influencers who make videos to sell products and ideas.
To Revitalize, which is likely a massive tech company with a high market cap, Mark Simon was just one of potentially thousands of online puppets who accepted their money to spin information and further their political and financial agendas. Even thoughRodney Kraintz appears to be high up at Revitalize, he may not be all all-powerful as he seemswhen Mucnie finally confronts him at the end of the series. Like Mark, Rodney only serves a specific function in the dynamic ecosystem of Revitalize’s network. Revitalize appears to be much bigger than any one person and is motivated by greed, control, wealth, and power.
Revitalize Was Involved In Massive Election Interference, Coercion & Murder
Many of the specifics about Revitalize’s motivations and strategies are not explored at great length inThe Madness. They are essentially meant to be a placeholder for any one of multiple real-life biotech companies that have billions of dollars and massive influence, particularly in the United States. Some of the common goals of real-life environmental biotech companies include restoration of species and ecosystems, remediation of polluted land and water, and other aims focused on recyclable and efficient environmental products.The Madnessnever really explains how an apparently good-natured biotech company would benefitfrom influencing far-right extremist policies.
Netflixexplains, “Revitalize’s assets could peddle whatever talking points and policies the company wanted to their millions of followers through content that seemed folksy and easier to digest. Revitalize wasn’t merely contributing millions to election campaigns, but controlling the complete narrative around America’s political dialogue.” This suggests that although Revitalize was superficially interested in the environment, it had hidden political motivations that had nothing to do with their area of expertise. The series also portrays Revitalize as having theimmediate resources to hire assassins like Julia Jayne and the men who killed Mark Simon.
Why Rodney Kraintz Tells Muncie He’s Just A “Cog In The Machine” At Revitalize
Kraintz is quite hopeless and cynical for a billionaire
When Muncie confronts Kraintz at the end ofThe Madness, the silent investor billionaire says there are hundreds more like him and many other companies besides Revitalize who influence elections, buy policies, and engage in political corruption. Kraintz is surprisingly quite unhinged and fearless for someone with a net worth of over $1 billion.He cynically calls himself a “cog in the machine” despite being in the top 1% of the top 1%as he illustrates to Muncie that his death would mean nothing and would effect no change. Revitalize and other companies would continue to use their extreme wealth to subliminally influence the masses.
Muncie thankfully walks away from Rodney Kraintz and the dark political web hidden beneath Revitalize’s public image. Kraintz’s death at the hands of a rogue member of The Forge implies that both of them arejust products of the producer-consumer information-sharing system that Revitalize, and many other companies, engage in. Kraintz is dead and can no longer pay influencers to manipulate target demographics or pay assassins to kill dissenters. The Forge member will face decades if not life in prison. If it weren’t for Muncie still having his family,The Madnesswould have a bleak ending rooted in the hopelessness of misinformation and political corruption.
The Madness
Cast
Muncie Daniels is a political consultant-turned-TV pundit who may have lost his way in life. While on a work sabbatical in the Poconos to write the great American novel, Muncie finds himself the only witness to the murder of a well-known white supremacist, and now he’s being framed for the crime. Muncie is forced to go on the run in a desperate fight to clear his name and unravel a global conspiracy before time runs out. Along the way he’ll reconnect with his family, find unlikely allies, and fight against disinformation in a post-truth age.
